As our driver made his way along the roads leading from the town of San Antonio de Areco and out into the countryside leading to the estancia (or ranch), where we would be staying for a few days, the whole world seemed to grow. Endless fields of lush green soja created a gently swaying carpet stretching from horizon to horizon, only broken up by grassy pastures dotted with beautiful grazing horses. Even with Spanish talk radio blaring and the car racing, the world around us seemed to slow down and sigh gently into our ear, whispering, "take a break."
I have to make a confession: we thought that there was a beach in Buenos Aires. A beach where we could lounge in the sand, drink cocktails, splash in the ocean and forget what time it was for days on end. As it turns out (and as any diligent vacationer would have researched), there are no such beaches in Buenos Aires, and so, we instead opted to relax in the country.
We slept in until the sun peaking through the shades forced us to wake and head downstairs to breakfast, and to no surprise, we found ourselves the last guests to partake in the dulce de leche, media lunas and small, but mighty Argentine coffee set out for us. After breakfast, we had the option of a swim or ride before filling ourselves with an asado, a traditional Argentine bbq where there are many varied courses of different cuts of grass fed beef and bottomless glasses of Malbec wine. The only thing to do after such a meal is to head back to bed for a siesta, only waking an hour later to watch a polo match before dinner. As delightful and luxurious as all of this was, there are only so many days we could lay around like this.
On our last day, we woke early-ish to join the polo players on horseback for some stick and ball practice. The speed and excitement of cantering while swinging at a ball is exhilarating. I was amazed to find that I was able to hit the ball while at a gallop on my first time out - especially since while I do have some softball skills, hitting was NOT one of them.
This is the last of our vacation posts, and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing how we kick back when we aren't photographing weddings.
Buenos Aires is a city for the night owls. Everyone seems to be operating on the late night schedule, which is very pleasant when you're on vacation and have no agenda. Early in the morning, at 1am, when all the exhaust from the traffic of the work day has settled and the weather cools to present a balmy summer evening, we'd wander through the streets of our neighborhood in San Telmo. Cafes are bustling, people dance tango in parks and plazas, teenagers hang out on the street drinking mate and blasting music from their car stereos. Even though there's so much activity, we still feel like we're on our own little secret adventure - maybe it's because we know that back at home at 1am everyone is probably sleeping, or maybe it's because it's so easy to disappear into the shadows during the night, or maybe it's because everything we see is new and exciting for us. Whatever the reason, with the night there's a sense of drama. In looking through our collection of photos, I found a lot of pictures that were taken at night where the dark is overwhelming. Even many of the photos we took during the day were dramatic either because of the contrasty light or the imposing architecture or use of intense color. Overall, the city is very colorful, boasting vibrant street murals and people who wear bold bright colors. So, here is our collection of Buenos Aires, the dramatic city, with a few fun and silly vacation photos thrown in.
Lounging on our rooftop terrace, soaking in the sun with cervezas in hand, wondering "which restaurant to try next?" followed by "which ice cream place to hit afterwards?", these were the tough decisions we faced. This was our first vacation in four and half years, and it marked some major milestones: Adm turned 30 and we completed our second season of photographing weddings full-time. What better way to celebrate than head 6000+ miles down south to Buenos Aires where there was summer? With Oakland and the Bay a world away, we finally had some time to rest and relax, and boy did we do just that. We didn't travel with an agenda of things to do and places to see. We went to try to fall into step with another lifestyle and to explore a new place at our leisure. We did our best to disconnect from our world of email, Facebook, and work. We lost track of the days of the week and only discovered that it was Sunday when tango music from the infamous San Telmo Sunday street fair filtered through our windows. Although we wandered around Buenos Aires with our cameras at our side, our vacation wasn't about the pictures. We photographed things when we wanted to and took pictures for our vacation scrapbook rather than our travel portfolio.
